Take (a Bike Ride to) a Hike

The Harpeth Bike Club had it's Fall Hiking Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and RandoGirl and I had signed up for this almost a year ago. Since this year the outing was at Cloudland Canyon State Park and less than 200 miles from home, I decided it was a good overnight light-touring opportunity to ride down there. Tom Finegan came with me.

We started on Thursday morning with a stiff crosswind out of the West. About 30 miles in, we turned East towards Marcy Jo's and lunch, and the going was much easier.

When we got to Marcy Jo's, I discovered that I had forgotten my wallet. Fortunately, Tom was there so he could pay for my lunch ... and dinner that night, breakfast the next day, lunch, and so forth. We had a great burger and continued East.

Our route the first day was pretty flat, so we got to our hotel in Tullahoma about 3:30. We checked in, and then walked down to Applebee's for dinner. It was still early, so we walked the other way to the movie theater to watch "Interstellar." By the time we left, the wind had eased but it was quite cold out.

Friday we were on the road just after 7:30 am, wearing all of the bike clothes that we had. Somehow, the wind had shifted to the Northeast, so it kept coming around as a headwind for much of the day.

The first 35 miles were still flat, but then we approached the ridge up to Monteagle.

We took Roarke's Cove Road up to Sewanee. I had not been this way for a while, and it was nice to see that they finally did something with those old junker cars on the steep turn.

Eventually, I got to the top and took a break. The bike handled very nicely, even with the extra few pounds of clothing and toiletries. I think that it might be possible to do an even longer fast tour with just the Revelate Viscacha, so long as you stayed in hotels and did laundry every other night.

We grabbed a quick second breakfast in Sewanee ... or what should have been a quick second breakfast if they hadn't messed up my order ... then headed down TN-156 towards South Pittsburgh. From there, we climbed Sand Mountain into Alabama, then crossed quickly back into Georgia to descend into Trenton. After getting a burger and fries at Wendy's, we then climbed up on to Lookout Mountain and went into the park. It had been a 95-mile day with a lot of climbing, and I was very glad to find RandoGirl in our cabin and take it easier for the rest of the evening.

The next day we hiked. There were lots of pretty trees.

Waterfalls.

Friends photobombing.

Smiles.

Creeks.

Views.

(I am scared of views.)

Cliffs.

Jams (that's me playing the box drum)..

Ridges.

And Panoramas..